


Dirty Dog!

by WritingReader



Category: Emmerdale
Genre: Charity Dingle - Freeform, Emmerdale - Freeform, F/F, Vanessa Woodfield - Freeform, Vanity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-08
Updated: 2019-02-08
Packaged: 2019-10-24 05:13:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,262
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17698310
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WritingReader/pseuds/WritingReader
Summary: Charity has cheated on her partners in the past, but she would never do that to Vanessa. But does the love of her life feel the same?





	1. Early Start

**Author's Note:**

> My first ever fan fic! I’m not sure if this is good or not so please leave a comment to let me know what you thought. Just do me a favour and stick with it ‘til the end!

*BUZZZZZZZZ BUZZZZZZZ*

Charity opens her eyes to find it’s still dark outside and there’s a faint noise similar to a tractor revving it’s engine over her left shoulder... Of course, that ‘tractor’ is actually her little blonde rocket woman sleeping soundly beside her. She hates to admit it but she finds comfort from her cute snores, especially ever since the stabbing when her bed felt lonely those nights. 

It takes her a moment to realise the sound that woke her was Vanessa’s phone, but since her fiancée’s sound asleep she decides she’ll not bother her and let her see the text notification when she wakes up.

Looking at the clock, she realises it’s only 5am; which makes her more curious about who is messaging her fiancée at that time of the morning. She considers it for a moment but finds the fight with sleep too difficult as her eyes droop and she gives in. 

The next thing she knows she’s being awoke with a kiss from Vanessa an hour later. “Morning beautiful!” 

She still can’t believe how cheery the vet can be in the mornings. 

“Morning babe. How’d you sleep? Well, by the sounds of it.”

“Oi!” Vanessa pokes her in the side which makes her squirm under her hand. “I hope you aren’t referring to my cute snoring...” 

Vanessa rolls away and lifts her phone to check the time. A look of panic shows on her face, followed by excitement. 

“Pfft, cute? If you call a chainsaw cutting through metal cute th-“

“I have to go!” Vanessa jumps out of bed, grabs her clothes and runs out of the room before Charity even gets a chance to ask her why. 

With a sigh, Charity rises from her bed, grabs her dressing gown and heads towards the kitchen for a brew. She hears Vanessa on the landing, getting ready for work frantically whilst talking to someone on the phone. 

“Yeah that’s great, can’t wait! Bless, sounds like some TLC is needed. Can’t wait to get a cuddle! See you soo-”

She doesn’t realise Charity is standing only a yard behind her with a confused expression until she catches her reflection in the mirror at the end of the hall. She panics and quickly ends the call.

“Ehh, Ness? You do realise it’s way too early to go into work yet, right?”

She looks sheepish as she gets dressed haphazardly, avoiding Charity’s eyes. 

“Yeah I know, I just have to meet with a client ASAP. She messaged me this morning arranging to meet before we open up so I need to hurry. I’ll see you at lunchtime though!” 

She leans up to kiss Charity a quick goodbye as she dashes downstairs and disappears. 

Charity can’t help but wonder what could be so urgent, but before she can ponder too much she hears crying from the boys’ room. Even though Chas offered to let one of the boys use Grace’s room, they both insist on sleeping in the same room. 

She sneaks her head around the corner to find Johnny on the floor and Moses lying comfortably in Johnny’s bed instead of his own. Rolling her eyes, she goes over to the boys; lifting Johnny up and setting him beside Moses. After a quick kiss and cuddle they soon settle for a little while longer, so she can get back to her main priority of the day - finding out what the bloody hell Vanessa Woodfield is up to.


	2. Crossword Clue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things get weirder in the Dales... What’s Vanessa hiding?

After leaving the boys off at Nursery, Charity busies herself with opening the pub and making a start on her latest crossword. Usually she can fly through them with ease but she’s having difficulty concentrating today. So much so, that she doesn’t notice Vanessa skipping into the pub with her pony tail bobbing behind her - a sight that would’ve made her sick a couple of years ago but now it makes her heart melt every time without fail.

She mumbles a crossword clue to herself, trying to figure it out. “19 down, 7 letters. Dishonest person...”

“Cheater!” 

“Eh?” Charity jumps at the familiar voice and relaxes when she realises it’s only Vanessa. “Hmm, right. Thanks. How was your client? You know, the one you rushed off for this morning...”

The vet raised her eyebrow in wonder. Even though she think she’s cracked Charity code, sometimes even she struggles to figure out what goes on in that landlady’s beautiful head sometimes. She can hear insecurity in her voice, but she lets it slip.

“Yeah, fine. Just a check up, really. Pint please?”

Vanessa thinks she’s gotten away with it but Charity notices how quickly she dismisses the subject of conversation. Why would she rush so much and go into work before 7am just for a check up? 

Reluctantly, Charity pours her a pint without asking any more questions. Maybe she’s just being paranoid. She hopes so...

She pops into the cellar to change a barrel and upon her return she finds Vanessa and Chas bickering at the bar. An unusual occurrence, considering the two get on well. 

She can overhear Chas whispering angrily. “You can’t keep it from her much longer Vanessa! Either you tell her or I will! She won’t like this one bit.”

This really makes her worry now. But, Charity being Charity she avoids bringing up the conversation with her fiancée. She’d much rather grab a bottle of dry white wine, finish her shift early and mope on the sofa. She can’t believe the love of her life is hiding something from her. Thing is, is it only something... or someone?


	3. The Slapper In The Room

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Charity’s mind goes into overdrive, she realises she needs to address the elephant in the room soon.

She heads to bed early, leaving the boys in the capable hands of Chas until Vanessa gets home from work. She sneaks another bottle of wine up to her room, excusing herself even before dinner time due to a ‘dodgy stomach and a sore head.’ Sore heart more like, if there’s such a thing. The dodgy stomach isn’t a lie either, she feels sick at the thought of Vanessa being with someone else. She doesn’t know for sure that Vanessa’s cheating on her, but if she’s honest with herself... She doesn’t really want to know the answer. What she doesn’t know can’t hurt her, right? Plus, she can’t bring herself to see Vanessa right now, acting all cheery and lovely as if nothing’s happening. As if she isn’t breaking Charity’s heart in two. 

She doesn’t realise she’s dozed off until she’s woke up by the sound of their bedroom door creaking open. 

“You awake Charity?” 

Drunk and tired, she decides to keep her eyes closed and pretend to be asleep. She’s not all that sure if her voice would work even if she wanted it to, so this is the safer option. 

She feels the duvet being tucked in around her and a kiss to her forehead. Her mind goes into overdrive... If Vanessa really cares about her like she says she does, why is she doing this to her? Sure, she hasn’t any evidence of an affair but she’s putting two and two together here. The secret message, the weird phone call, the fight with Chas...

She can hear her footsteps getting quieter as she leaves to put the boys to bed. She can hear her mumbling to them next door, probably reading them a bedtime story. She lies awake with tears in her eyes until she can hear Vanessa come into the room again, forcing her to shut them again. She just hopes Vanessa doesn’t notice the tear that has escaped down her cheek. 

When Vanessa goes into the bathroom Charity takes the opportunity to compose herself, drying her cheeks and settling her breathing. She doesn’t want an argument, not right now - after two bottles of wine and an evening of crying. She knows all hell will break loose if she accuses Vanessa of cheating if she isn’t. She needs to get some confirmation first. 

After a restless night of sleep, Charity can feel her fiancée rising early again. It’s only 6am and she’s already up and getting ready. It’s another hour before the boys rise and a further two hours before the vets opens. Her quick exits in the mornings these days are reminding her of the early days of their relationship-that-wasn’t-a-relationship when she’d wake up alone, sad that Vanessa was so ashamed she couldn’t even stay for breakfast. She decides she should at least ask why.

“Up early again today babe? I’m almost starting to think you don’t want to see me...” She tries to hide the insecurity in her voice but she knows she’s failed. 

“Hey! Don’t be silly. I just have to nip into work early to check on a few things. I’m meeting Trace for lunch in the caf but how about we have a movie night tonight? Us and the boys?” She knows she’s being secretive, but she just can’t tell Charity yet. She needs to figure out what she’s going to do about her situation first. 

Charity is getting annoyed with her being so stand-offish but she knows now isn’t the time for this conversation. She’ll wait until this evening to tackle it head on.

“Sounds good.” She sarcastically mumbles the next bit, sure that the vet won’t hear her. “Hopefully your mistress won’t miss you too much.” She’s sure she’s gotten away with it, so she jumps when she hears Vanessa question her. 

“What did you say?”

Finding it too early to argue, Charity thinks frantically. “Eh, I said hopefully your sister remembers about lunch...”

The vet raises a suspicious eyebrow before kissing her goodbye. Charity buries her head into the pillow, wondering how she’s going to mention the elephant in the room tonight. And by the elephant in the room, she means the slapper who’s sleeping with the love of her life.


	4. Pringle...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It all comes to a head as Charity finds a bitch in her bed.

After a miserable day at work where she managed to cut her hand on broken glass and spill stale ale all over her blouse, Charity makes her way upstairs to shower. She asked Noah to look after the boys so she’s hoping she might even have time for a bath before anyone notices she’s gone. She could do with some relaxing before mentioning the elephant in the room this evening. 

As she passes the door into her room, she hears a noise. 

First, she hears indistinguishable crying coming from the bedroom, followed by giggling. She presses her ear against the door, in complete shock. Surely Vanessa isn’t cheating on her, is she? And she has the cheek to do it right under her nose?! In her house?! What the bloody hell is the crying about?! 

She can hear Vanessa whispering. 

“I can’t believe I’ve managed to sneak you home without Charity seeing. Oi! Quit licking me, you’re making me all wet!” 

Charity bursts in shouting “GET YOUR DIRTY PAWS OFF MY FIANCÉE YOU BITCH!”

She isn’t quite expecting for her words to be so true... As she finds Vanessa, Johnny and Moses giggling with a golden retriever puppy on Vanessa’s knee. 

For once, Charity is speechless.

Vanessa breaks the silence, smiling as she reassures Charity. 

“I’m sorry, I know you said no to a puppy but she was dropped off at the vets early yesterday morning and I’ve been looking after her since...”

Johnny and Moses begin pleading. “CAN WE KEEP HER PLEASE PLEASE CAN WE PLEEEEAAAASSSSEEEEEEEEE????”

Noah even peaks his head around the corner, smirking. “Go on Mum, it would be a right laugh having a dog here. You always end up making a dogs dinner out of all our dinners so atleast you’d have a dog to give it to...”

“OI!” Noah gets a shove from his Mum. “You’ll be the one who’ll have to clean up its’ poo after it does one on the floor then!”

Vanessa’s eyes brighten up. “So we can keep her then????”

“Oh go on then,” Charity gives in as she rolls her eyes.

The four of them let out a chorus of cheers and yippees, and Vanessa runs up to give her a thank you kiss. 

After all her worrying the past few days, Charity realises it’s a much better option than the alternative. She starts to grin stupidly as she thinks how stupid she has been. As if her Vanessa would cheat on her? Days spent moping, crying and worrying all because of a bloody dog. 

When she looks at the happiness bursting from Ness and their three boys, she can’t help but feel maybe a dog isn’t the worst idea after all. 

Noticing her grin, Vanessa matches it as she cuddles her fiancée who’s now watching her boys fuss around this little furball on their bed.

“What were you saying about mucky paws and bitches?”

“Oh, nothing. It doesn’t matter.” She’s about to embrace her little blonde rocket woman when Johnny comes walking over with the puppy in his arms, licking his eyelid and wriggling like a worm. Vanessa grabs the puppy from him and holds her up so she’s eye level with Charity. 

She rolls her eyes and Ness giggles. “So what will we call her then? I was thinking maybe... Pringle?”

Noah snorts. “Pringle Dingle? Jeez Ness. I hate to admit it, but she does look like a Pringle...”

The two younger boys begin to giggle, tugging on Charity’s trousers with their big eyes. They begin jumping up and down shouting “PRINGLE! PRINGLE! Can we call her Pringle Mummy pleeeaaasssseeeee???”

She moves her gaze from the two boys, to Noah, to Vanessa and finally, to Pringle Dingle the Dog. 

“Great, another set of puppy dogs eyes around here.”


End file.
